Emotional Intelligence of Malaysian Academia towards Work Performance

Abstract

This paper describes the research conducted in relating to emotional intelligence of university staff to work attitude. The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Scale devised by Schutte et al. (1998) is used in this study, which is more suitable compared to BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory. Beside their experiences, knowledge and skills, emotion play an important role in pushing individual to produce and perform the best. Emotion is critical in motivating, persuading, communicating, leading and controlling individuals and groups. The role of EI in employees’ work attitude has not been explored in-depth especially in higher institutions which rather focus EI on students and their academic performances. Quantitative method is adopted and questionnaires are distributed among academics and middle-management employees using simple random sampling. The questionnaire has been designed to assess how effectively individual deal with emotion. The findings of this empirical study would highlight the importance of EI in university and give details on EI factors that influence the work attitude among employees. The t-test, correlations and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. The findings found that EI is positively related to work-attitude. Appraisal and expression of emotion are moderately correlated to job performance and job satisfaction.